Tech Mogul funds USC Cancer Institute in West Los Angeles

Tech mogul Larry Ellison, the co-founder of computer software giant Oracle Corp., has funded what could be a pioneering cancer research center that will open next April. The Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine of USC will be located at 12414 Exposition Boulevard, near Bundy Drive and near a light-rail stop, in the highly desirable Westside office market. USC’s Keck School of Medicine, which is based in Boyle Heights, announced two years ago that Ellison was donating $200 million to establish the namesake institute, but the location was just announced this July. Dr. David Agus, a professor of medicine and biomedical engineering at the Keck School of Medicine and the founding director and chief executive of the new institute, stated the following,

I want to focus on prevention. My job is to change you so cancer doesn’t want to happen anymore.

The Ellison Institute expects to purchase the 79,000-square-foot building after leasing it for two to five years. The three-story building was designed by HLW International, a New York-based architecture firm, which designed the building to be open to the environment with multiple outdoor terraces. The building will house interdisciplinary cancer research laboratories that will focus on scientific discovery and innovation. The institute will also have a clinic, a think tank, and education and wellness programs to help people avoid contracting cancer. Hopefully the institute is able to flourish at its location and helps further cancer research.